The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya 94Jose to a back room to prepare for his baptism. Once in the back room, Jose was surprised to learn thathe had to strip completely naked before pulling a heavy white cotton robe over his head, while theReverend instead simply stepped into hip waders to protect his suit before donning a similar robe. Thispuzzled Jose, who very much would have liked a pair of hip waders, too, until the Reverend pointedout that it was symbolic, and that like a naked newborn baby Jose was being born again. It was a prettyswell idea, and Jose didn’t allow himself to dwell for more than a moment on the fact that newbornbabies always made their first appearances covered in blood and gore.Properly draped in their robes, the two men exited the back room through a side door whichopened to three steps leading down into the baptismal. The congregation, which had seated itself whilethe two men robed, once again stood and resumed its benevolent smiling as first Jose and thenReverend Kent descended the steps to stand together in the waist-deep water. The Reverend gave a verybrief speech about the spiritual significance of baptism, but since the water in the baptismal was verynearly ice-cold it was a shorter speech than it otherwise might have been. With a movement practicedinnumerable times while he was a student at Charlottesville Bible Seminary, he swiftly threw one armbehind Jose’s back and with the other hand pushed on Jose’s forehead, levering the soon-to-be newbornoff of his feet and into the water.Jose had been unprepared for this sudden physical immersion. He instinctively held his breathas he went under, but his eyes hardly blinked and he watched the displaced water slowly roll back tocover his sinking head. The water seemed thick to Jose, like gelatin, and with a sudden rush ofexcitement he realized that he was once again moving through the world in a time outside of time. Itcould mean only thing: She was here. She had to be. La Catrina.If Jose was moving faster than time, Jose’s thoughts were moving even faster than that. Hethought\about the first time he saw La Catrina in the desert. He thought of her grace and elegance andher sheer eroticism. He thought of how often he had longed for her, how often he had missed her, and